


Just Begun

by J (jaywright)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Aromantic Grog Strongjaw, F/M, Post-Campaign 1 (Critical Role), critmas treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:19:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28418997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaywright/pseuds/J
Summary: "Ah."  Grog said, and nodded sagely.  "I know what it is you need.  You need a night at the house of lady favors!"
Relationships: Keyleth/Grog Strongjaw
Comments: 23
Kudos: 72
Collections: Critmas Exchange 2020





	Just Begun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flammablehat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flammablehat/gifts).



> contains some discussion of Keyleth/Vax & Grog/others, as well as mentions of Vex/Percy & Pike/Scanlan

"Pretty, isn't it?"

Grog's voice was gravelly and unexpected behind her, and Keyleth looked away from the sunset colors casting their way across the city of Whitestone to crane her neck and look up at him.

"It's beautiful," she agreed. She looked around them at the rest of the roof, deserted except for a rifleman pacing the far corner on patrol. "What are you doing up here?"

"Collecting," he said. He flumped heavily down at her side and opened his hand, showing her a scattered handful of gold coins. "Been out drinking with those guys a bit since I came into town." He jerked a thumb in the direction of the rifleman. "That one's shit at cards."

Keyleth grinned. "Guess you've been working on your numbers, then. Good for you." 

He leaned in with a secretive smile, glancing over his shoulder to make sure the rifleman was far away before he admitted, "Might have been luck."

"Same result," she pointed out. She took a moment to look him over. He'd swept her up off her feet earlier when she'd arrived, busy on his way from someplace to another, but she hadn't had a chance to get a good look at him. He looked strong as ever, a few new tattoos creeping up the back of his neck, and the faintest hints of silver were starting to show at the edges of his beard, looking unexpectedly distinguished. "You didn't mention why you were here when I ran into you before."

"Oh!" He tucked his winnings away into his pouch. "Vex promised to let me know the next time her Grey Guys were going after something particularly nasty. It was a beautiful fight. Wish you'd've been here."

"Me too," Keyleth said wistfully.

"You should tell her to let you know next time, too," Grog suggested. 

Keyleth had to admit that the idea had some appeal. "You know," she mused, "I might."

He beamed. "I've missed fighting with you," he said. He knocked his knee against hers. "Just missed you, really," he added, his voice a little rough.

Impulsively, she let her arms go around his waist, dragging him into a hug. "You too, big guy," she said, feeling an echo of Vax's voice in her words as they left her.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Why're _you_ here?" he asked. "You didn't say, either."

She shrugged under his arm. "Just visiting," she said. The rest of it was too much to talk about – that it was the time of year when she felt the most alone, when seeing Vex was the most hurtful and also the most healing thing she could to for herself; that the kids were getting too big, too fast, and she felt like their lives were escaping her along with everyone else's; that sometimes the expectations at home felt too heavy and she just needed to _go_ , to be somewhere, _anywhere_ that wasn't Zephrah. 

He looked around them. "Nobody to visit up here," he pointed out.

Keyleth let out a little laugh. "No," she agreed. Sometimes he was too perceptive for his own good or anyone else's. "It's…well, there's always something going on here, isn't there? I feel like things are a little…simpler at home. Quieter."

"I don't know," he said dubiously. "You've got all that wind."

"Wind is predictable," she said wryly. She looked out over the city, leaning heavily against his side. "It's fine," she said. "I'm fine. I just needed a few minutes. It's strange…" she broke off, until he made a questioning noise. She sighed before continuing. "Feeling lonely surrounded by people you love."

"Ah." Grog said, and nodded sagely. "I know what it is you need."

Keyleth smiled. "Good," she said, "because I don't have any idea. What is it?"

"You need a night at the house of lady favors!"

A laugh burst out of her and she pulled out of his arms, looking at him incredulously. "Grog!"

"Oh, don't worry," he hurried to assure her. "They have man favors there, too."

The laughter kept rolling from her, a little helplessly. "I don't think that's what I need."

He shrugged. "It's what I'd do when I'd feel lonely, going around with all of you. It worked!" he insisted.

She smiled softly, patting his arm. "Thank you," she said, "for the suggestion. But I don't think that's the kind of lonely I am."

He frowned, considering. "There are different kinds?" he asked.

"There are different kinds of everything," she said. "Think about…oh, I don't know. Love. You love all of us, right?" He nodded. "But you love Pike in a different way than you love me. You love Scanlan in a different way than you love their kids. Loneliness can be the same way. I'm not _alone_ here, but…" she sighed. "Seeing Vex and Percy together, how happy they are, how much of a future they've gotten to have together…" she trailed off and looked into the almost-twilight for a long time before finishing. "I don't think it's going to be fixed by a night with someone I don't know." She squeezed his arm. "But thank you. For trying."

"Oh, that's not going to be fixed by anything," Grog said. "I didn't mean fixing things. I just meant…" he shrugged. "Feeling something. Getting someone to touch you. Sometimes it's nice. Helps things feel better, even if it doesn't fix them." He eyed her closely. "How long's it been?" 

She blinked. "How - ?" she repeated faintly.

"Since you, you know." He made a vague gesture that still managed to be decidedly obscene.

She felt her face go hot. "Oh! I. Uh." 

"I know for me," he continued, completely oblivious to her embarrassment, "if I go too long without it, it can throw all sorts of other stuff out of whack. Maybe you’re the same. Couldn't hurt to try it out, at least."

"I…" she swallowed. "I don't think I’m the same, Grog. I don't really – I haven't…" She couldn't look at him. "I'm not really interested in doing that sort of thing casually," she said finally, her voice a little stiff.

"Okay," he said agreeably. "So you've got like someone. That's cool. I don't get it, but it's cool. But, I mean. I haven't heard anything about you liking anyone since – " he froze, his eyes catching on her and going very wide.

She sighed. "Now you're getting it."

" _Oh_." He turned and took her by the shoulders. " _Keyleth_. That is a _very_ long time. You can't tell me that you haven't…" he made a complicated expression that managed to be just as lewd as his gesture, "in…" He looked blank. "Uh." He mumbled an indistinguishable jumble of numbers, "years."

"I'm telling you that, Grog," she confirmed. Her whole face felt like it was on fire, but she made herself continue. "I don't really…feel like I need it. I liked it, w – " she stumbled over the words. "With Vax. But I miss _him_. I don't miss _it_."

He eyed her closely, and nodded slowly. "I think," he said, "I might get that." She raised her eyebrows and waited for him to continue. "I don't think I want what Pike and Scanlan have. Or Percy and Vex. Or what you had with Vax. Like, ever. So I kinda get not really wanting something that other people are really into."

She felt a fond smile pull at her lips. "Yeah," she agreed. "Yeah, I think it is kinda like that."

He looked at her. "So, you wouldn't want to?" he asked. "Like, I know you're not secretly dying for it or anything, and you don't want the lady favors. The man favors," he corrected himself. "But do you think it could help? With the loneliness? Letting someone you care about love on you a little?"

"I…" she looked at him blankly. "I don't know," she said. "I haven't really considered it. I don't really have – "

"I mean," he continued, "you said it before. We love each other, right? All of us? Not all in the same way, but if you wanted someone who wasn't a stranger to…whatever, really. Play with your bits a little. Make you feel good for a bit. Snuggle you to sleep. That kind of thing." He held out his hands. "I'm _very_ good." He said it without a shred of self-consciousness, and it made her laugh. He grinned back, looking pleased with himself.

She didn't answer right away. Instead, she pulled him against her again, feeling a wave of comfort wash over her at the feeling of his arm dropping around her shoulders, the solid warmth of him pressing to her side. She tilted her head against his shoulder, and she thought about it, considering how he'd feel stretched out beside her in bed, the touch of his rough fingers, the heat of his mouth, the scratch of his beard against her skin. She felt a stirring inside of her at the thought that she hadn't felt in a very long time. She let one of her hands find his, her fingers tracing over his, feeling the way they went slack in her grasp, making her hand feel small but not fragile against them. She could feel his pulse through the skin of his wrist. It was pounding.

"Yeah," she said, finally, eventually, pulling back to look up at him, and his eyes when they met hers were wide with a soft kind of wonder. "I think I might like that."

He breathed out very slowly and carefully. "Good," he said. "Me too." His hands fell to her waist, holding her with a wide gentle grasp that sent a rush of warmth through her. "Can I pick you up?"

The question startled a laugh out of her. "Wh – " she started to ask, but interrupted herself. "Yeah. Sure, go for it." 

He beamed and scooped her up into his arms, standing. He'd held her before, when she was injured, or drunk, but there was a promise to the feeling of his hands spreading across her skin now that thrilled her. She looped her arms around his neck. It felt silly, dizzying almost, perched at the edge of the building, the city having fallen into darkness around them, lit only by the lights from the windows below, and she let out an almost hysterical giggle.

He beamed at her, burying his face in her wind-tossed hair and pressing a messy kiss to the side of her face before whirling them around toward the door that led back inside.

They saw no one on the way to her room, and he set her down outside the door so she could unlock it. He stayed close by her side, bracing himself on an arm against the doorframe, and when she opened the door and stepped inside, he stayed there, eyes on her.

"This is okay, yeah?" he asked. "You haven't changed your mind?"

She took the time to consider it seriously, looking him over. "Yeah, Grog," she said. "It's okay. I haven't changed my mind."

His face lit up and he followed her into the room, shoving the door closed behind them. She half expected him to keep advancing, to sweep her up in his arms again, but instead they stood there, a few feet from each other, awkward and staring in the middle of the room. 

"Um," she said finally, eventually. "I don't really…know what I'm doing, here."

"I do," he said easily, but he still didn't move.

She looked down at herself a little helplessly. "Do you want me to…uh." She tugged at the tie of her robe, and looked up to find him looking back at her with a faintly alarmed expression.

"Oh!" He said. His eyes raked down her body in a way that made her skin go hot. "I mean, _yeah_. But I think…" He shifted again. "I mean, you might have the wrong idea about this. It's not really about what I want."

Keyleth blinked at him. "What?"

He took a step toward her and held out his hands. "Keyleth, I get what I want whenever I feel like it. There are ladies in any city that'll give me that for a few gold." He reached up and started undoing his clothes, dropping them carelessly to the floor of her room. "I offered this so I could give you what _you'd_ like."

She watched wordlessly as he bared himself before her. His cock was still mostly soft, but was starting to stir with interest, and she found her eyes drawn to it, felt them going wide at the sight. She'd seen him naked before, but it had been long enough that she'd suspected her memory had been exaggerating some things. 

It hadn't.

"I." She swallowed. "Grog, I don't know that I can…"

"Oh." He looked down at himself, then back up at her. "Oh, no, don't worry about it, it takes a special kind of lady to – " He cut himself off. "Uh, not that you're not a special lady, Keyleth. Just, like…I've seen a lot of ladies who do favors, you know? A _lot_. And only a few of them were interested in…" he waved vaguely at himself, his cheeks going a little dark. He looked back up at her. "That's not what I was expectin'. I just thought…naked might be a good start."

"Naked," she repeated. "Right." She started to undo her robe, but he stepped forward, catching her hands. She looked up at him.

"I like cuddling, too," he said. "If you'd rather – "

"No." Her voice came out more forcefully than she meant it to, but she lifted her chin, keeping the tone as she let her hands curl around his wrists and hold him close to her. "I want this. I just…I'm not sure I really know what I want. I'm not really used to…" she flushed. "Making decisions."

His lips curved into a faint smile. "Yeah," he agreed. "I can see how that probably didn't happen much. Y'know, before."

She shrugged. "Vax knew what he wanted. I…I liked it."

Grog nodded carefully. "Okay," he said. "I can do that. How 'bout this?" He pried his hands gently from her grasp and reached for the tie of her robe, undoing it. She dropped her hands and let the fabric hang loosely around her. His fingers lifted to push it from her shoulders, brushing lightly over her skin, just that small contact making her shiver. He continued tracing his hands down her body, peeling off the thin coverings she was wearing under the robe, letting them fall to the floor. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the unfamiliar roughness of his hands against her skin. "I'll guess. I'll do some things that I think you'll like, and you have to promise to tell me if there's anything you want me to stop doing, or anything you decide you want more of." Her eyes flickered open, a little hazy, and met his. "Deal?" he asked.

She nodded. "Deal," she agreed.

His hands settled at her waist. "I think this'd go better on the bed."

"Yeah," she agreed, and the word was only half out of her mouth before he was lifting her, hurtling them both back toward the bed and pressing her back into the soft pillows, knocking a startled laugh out of her.

She beamed up at him, the same helpless laughter taking her that had struck her up on the roof, and he grinned back down at her, an almost feral edge to it. "You seemed to like that before," he said, looking pleased with himself.

"Yeah," she agreed. It was new, being with someone who could throw her around bodily like that, but it was also unexpectedly exciting, the feeling of his hands wide and warm against her skin, moving her where he wanted her, but knowing that at the slightest word from her, he would shift entirely. Knowing that she could _make_ him do something else, that the power simmering within her was probably stronger than what was inside of him, or would at least make for an interesting match. She wrapped her hands around his wrists, digging her fingers tightly into his skin and seeing his breath go a little shallow at the pressure. "We should spar sometime," she said, the words coming out a little wild. "While we're both in town."

He let out a low growl and leaned in. "I'd like that," he told her, and he dipped his head to press a kiss to her neck, his teeth scraping lightly at her skin. A ragged gasp escaped her lips, and he was giving her that same feral grin when he lifted his head. "Not tonight," he said, and his fingers were deliberately gentle as he pulled his wrist from her grip and skated them down her side, from her breast over her hip to her thigh. She shivered at the touch. "But yeah. Give me all you've got."

"Oh, I will," she promised him, already picturing the wreck they could make of the training room beneath the castle, the two of them at their best against each other.

He ducked his head back down, but paused very near her face, his breath warm against her lips. "Can I kiss you?" he asked, and she surged up to meet his lips in response. He kissed like he did everything else, passionately, messily, somehow riding the thinnest line between roughness and gentleness. One of his hands continued to trace over her body, the other bracing himself against the bed, and she gasped into his mouth as his fingers circled her breast. 

He paused there, touching, then ducking his head down and kissing, drawing gasps from her, making her whole body respond. She clutched at the back of his head, holding him close to her, throwing her own head back and letting her eyes drift closed, losing herself in the sensation of his touch and his kisses against her skin.

His hands moved to her hips eventually, and she felt her legs drop open instinctively as he started to kiss slowly down her body. He let out a low sound at the motion, his voice vibrating against her, and she felt a sudden desperation, a need that had her fingers tightening against his head, pushing him downwards impatiently until his face settled between her legs, his eyes meeting hers almost playfully over her body as his tongue lapped out to lick her slowly and teasingly.

She jerked and arched at the touch, cursing under her breath, and she could practically feel the wicked smile he gave her as he leaned in to press a firmer kiss to her clit, his tongue doing something completely unbearable. She let out a low noise of approval, her fingers digging into his scalp, and she could feel the answering sound that he let out.

It was so easy to get lost in the sensation, to let her legs wrap around him, no concern for how tight she held him, knowing he could take anything she gave him, riding out the waves of pleasure that he drew from her with his mouth against her, his hands wrapped thick and bracing around her waist, holding her close to him as he brought her to the edge and over it, fucking his face, shaking and crying out with the pleasure that surged through her.

She let out a laugh at the unreasonably smug smile he flashed her as he lifted his head, his lips and beard slick and shining in the low light of her room. 

"You weren't wrong," she said, reaching down to rub her thumb over his mouth, and he caught it in his teeth, biting and sucking at it, eyes on hers. "You are good at that."

He grinned, letting her thumb drop from his mouth. He held up a hand, wiggling the fingers at her. "Good with these, too," he offered.

She laughed, ready to decline, but there was still something throbbing inside her, something that _wanted_ , something that his touch had awakened, and instead she tilted her hips toward him invitingly, lifting her chin like a challenge.

He beamed at her and let his hand drop to her face, pressing a finger to her lips. She felt her eyes go wide, but sucked in one of his fingers obligingly, her mouth watering at the sensation of sucking on it, a forgotten skill, but one she remembered enjoying. She sucked eagerly at his finger, thick and hot against her tongue, until he drew it from her lips and she felt it touching her, tentative at first, but sliding in slick and smooth as she tilted her hips to take it.

She watched his eyes go a little wide at the sensation, and she clenched down on him just to see him react, to see the way he breathed in sharply, his eyes going wide and reverent as they looked her over. His finger was huge, stretching her more than a few of hers did on the rare occasions when she felt the need to touch herself, and she let herself start rocking against it, arching up into his touch, fucking herself onto him until she felt a second finger probing questioningly at her.

She reached down to touch her clit, feeling the lightning sensation of pleasure streak through her, rolling her hips harder down onto his finger and letting the second one slip into her. He groaned, and when she looked down, she could see him desperately hard, his cock bobbing forgotten between them as he curled his fingers inside her and burst light into her vision.

She reached up, curling a hand around his neck and dragging him down for a messy kiss before breathing against the side of his head, "Touch yourself."

He dropped his forehead to her shoulder, groaning low. "Keyleth…"

She tightened around him, and he whimpered. "C'mon," she said. "Don't make me do this alone."

His eyes met hers as he settled back onto his heels, fingers still fucking into her as his other hand closed around himself, a shuddering breath tearing out of him at the touch. His hips started to rock into his fist with a force that made her mouth water with the thought of him twisting his body against her like that, pressing her back into the bed –

She came around his fingers, imagining that it was his enormous cock thrusting into her, the force of his considerable strength behind it. 

His fingers twitched inside her as he came, spilling out over his hand with his eyes open, coming to the sight of the way her body shook as the pleasure overtook her. 

He pulled out of her carefully, wiping the sheet messily across both of them before tumbling to the bed at her side and gathering her up into his arms, pulling her close. She wrapped an arm around his back, tracing meaningless patterns over his skin, leaning up to catch his mouth in lazy kisses. 

She started to fade from consciousness, wrapped there in his warm grasp. "Next time," she mumbled, "you've gotta let me reciprocate a little." He froze against her, his whole body going stiff. She dragged her eyes open to look at him. "It means give you something in return," she explained, but found when she looked at him that he was staring down at her with wide eyes.

"Next time?" he repeated faintly.

"Oh." She felt her cheeks heat up. "I mean, I guess I shouldn't assume that you want a – " the words were cut off as he bundled her close to him again, his arms going tight and warm around her, a delighted smile spreading across his face.

"I have," he said into her hair, " _so_ many other ideas of things you might like." 

She laughed, pressing kisses to his chest and neck, the only places she could reach from his tight embrace. "So you're an idea guy now."

"I've seen a _lot_ of ladies," he said. "They like a lot of different things."

She let out a helpless giggle. "Well," she said. "I'll probably like some of them, too."

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Hope so," he agreed. "That was fun. I like giving you stuff you like." 

"That _was_ fun," she agreed, stretching luxuriously against him. She curled herself into his embrace. "What do you say to sleeping it off and maybe messing each other up in the training room tomorrow?"

Grog chuckled against her. "Now you're the one with the good ideas," he said. "Thought you were here to visit, though."

Keyleth shrugged. "I mean, Vex and Percy can join in." She grinned. "I bet we could take them."

She felt Grog light up. "We _could_ ," he said.

She closed her eyes. "Tomorrow," she promised him. "Tonight, you've wiped me out."

He grumbled against her in a satisfied manner, his arms going a little slack around her as he settled deeper into the bed. "I c'n go, 'f you like," he offered, in direct contrast to everything his body was saying.

She pulled him closer. "Nope," she told him. "You're staying here."

"'kay," he mumbled, his breath already going slow and steady, his body heavy around her. "Little less lonely?" he asked as he drifted off.

"A little," she told him, knowing he wouldn't hear her, and she pressed a kiss to his face before curling against him and falling into a deep sleep.

She woke in the morning warm and pleasantly sore, and for the first time in a very long time, she didn't feel alone.


End file.
